From the company that brought us Guitar Hero comes DJ Hero, the
latest rhythm orientated music game that transforms the gamer into
DJ rock star as they scratch and tune their way to the top.

Lending
"street cred" to the game, DJ Hero features a variety of remixed
songs for this game such as Grandmaster Flash, Daft Punk and even
Queen but needless to say, there are a plethora of different songs
and genres to keep you entertained for a considerable amount of
time. Of course, the star of the game is the authentic looking
turntable that lets you unleash your hidden DJ muse and with that
said, Grandmaster B is in da hiz house for DJ Hero!

After eagerly unpacking the turntable and game, connecting the
device to the 360 was child's play and simply by pushing the
wireless button on both the console and the turntable, in a matter
of seconds the peripheral was detected and we were almost ready to
play.

After some initial study of the turntable, you might be
thinking, how do I play this game but thankfully the game contains
some rather in-depth tutorials to assist in sliding you into DJ
shoes. With that said, the turntable features the following dials,
buttons and DJ tools;

Start Button (Pause/Quickplay)

Back Button (Options Menu)

Directional Pad (Navigate
Menus)

XBox Guide Button (Launches
XBox Guide)

Turntable (Scratch
forwards/backwards)

Green Stream Button
(Confirm/Activate scratch or green stream)

Red Stream Button (Back /
Activate red stream / freestyle sample)

Blue Stream Button
(Activate or scratch blue stream)

Effects Dial: Changes
freestyle sample/manipulate effects zone

Crossfader slider (Crossfade
blue or green streams)

Euphoria Button (Activate
euphoria)

Now that you know all the buttons and dials etc on the turntable,
the wireless turntable is a very well made piece of hardware and
unlike the original guitars that were released with Guitar Hero, the
turntable feels quite sturdy and professionally made.

Another interesting aspect of the game is that it accommodates both
right and left handers, ensuring that it caters for the entire
market. The one thing I did find with the turntable was that early
on in the game, I could comfortably rest it on my lap, however as
the songs became more difficult, I needed to put this onto our
coffee table that allowed for more stability and accuracy.

Once I completed the tutorials in the game, I was ready to scratch
and crossfade with the best of them and in reflection, this game
reminds me of the PlayStation 2 game Amplitude due to its hypnotic and
addictive nature, not to mention the siren sounding music as you
attempt to match your rhythm with the music by matching the three
corresponding colours with the buttons on the turntable.

The
learning curve of the title is around a medium level of difficulty
and although you can jump straight in and play the game, you will
need a little amount of time to master the controls and go from zero
to hero.

Like Guitar Hero, DJ Hero contains a number of different difficulty
modes and the various gameplay modes from quickplay to online play. Although all the songs in DJ Hero are pre-recorded by hitting the
colours at the same time, scratching the record table or using the crossfader, it gives the impression that the player is behind the
music which works quite well.

Of course, like the whammy bar on the Guitar Hero peripheral, the effects
dial allows you to add some truly fun and entertaining modifications
to these songs which is the key to this game. The most difficult
aspect of DJ Hero was mastering the crossfader, which is a slider
that allows for left, right and centre controls which increases part of the
song that you are playing.

Of course, trying to do this when you
need to push one of the coloured buttons is a little tricky but once
you have the knack of it, it makes the experience that so much more
compelling. With practice, you'll eventually find a happy medium but
trying to get the crossfader into the centre when a song is playing
fast can become a fiddle some experience, albeit a fun one.

As you tweak and adjust the song, the game even sports a multiplier
to boost your scores and in single-player mode, there is even an
option to rewind part of the song which is another great feature to
get those scores high. Of course, nothing is more fun than
freestlying in the song, although this must be earned as is the
euphoria button as you reach that mythical level of music control.

As like all
other music rhythm games, if you do miss the notes or the cues with
the various dials and buttons, you may hear a few strange noises and
if you keep it up, eventually the song will end and you'll need to
retry. Of course the illusion of you being a DJ and actually
controlling how the music is heard is generally more than enough reward to
keep on scratching and fading.

The track listing of DJ Hero boasts a variety of new artists and
classic remixes such as the Black Eyed Pees and Queen. Some of the songs are also
used with other tracks in the game which does make for some
interesting remixes and with that said, DJ Hero contains 93 tracks
and 102 different mixes. For the purists, the complete track list
of DJ Hero is as follows;

The single-player game of DJ Hero does offer the player a variety of
awards such as new sets, venues and items. For lovers of multiplayer
and via XBox Live, DJ Hero allows you to play against a friend or
foe which generally had me being whipped, although when I did find
someone a little weaker than me, it was a blissful victory. The game
even supports microphones that allow you to communicate or DJ with
your friends over the XBox Live which does make for some more
interactive play.

Final Words?

DJ Hero is a fun rhythm music game that actually works quite well
out of the box and although it won't have the mass appeal of Guitar
Hero or Rock Band, it's still an addictively entertaining game that
contains quite a decent track listing. Best of all, downloadable
content has been planned for the game and I'm sure that Activision
will be releasing additional games in the near future so the initial
outlay for the game is well worth it. The star of the game is of
course the turntable that manages to successfully capture that
authentic DJ feel, so put your baseball cap on backwards, wear those
loose clothes and start mixing some hits because there's a new
hero in town.